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tv   MSNBC Live  MSNBC  October 9, 2012 8:00am-9:00am PDT

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taking place in florida, north carolina, virginia. >> to me is these numbers are surprising and concerning, because if it is a result of the debate, it's, to me, in my opinion, a response to a stylistic win. >> all those people who said debates don't matter? they were dead wrong. >> these numbers coming as the campaigns blanket battleground states with none more pivotal than the swing state of ohio. today's "the new york times" reporting that the romney camp is looking for a reset in the buckeye state, intensifying romney's advertising, making more stops and deploying more campaign troops on the ground. >> people wonder why it is i'm so confident we're going to win. i'm confident because i see you here on a day like this. this is unbelievable. >> so, the obama campaign trying to detour romney's road to 1600 pennsylvania avenue through "sesame street." the president hitting romney on the stump. >> for all you moms and kids out there, you should have confidence that, finally,
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somebody is cracking down on big bird. elmo has been seen in a white suburban. he's driving for the border. >> and also, in a new ad that's all the talk on the trail. >> bernie madoff, ken lay, dennis kozlowski, criminals, glutens of greed and the evil genius who towered over them? one man has the guts to speak his name. >> big bird. big bird. big bird. >> it's me, big bird. >> did you see the new ad put out by the president, the re-elect obama campaign? big bird. big bird. what is that all about? >> we get straight to it now with our tuesday political power panel. msnbc contributor jonathan capehart, also an opinion writer for "the washington post." msnbc analyst karen finney, also a columnist for "the hill." and republican strategist john brae bender. karen, i want to start with you.
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that pew poll for swing states and likely voters has to be a real wake-up call to president obama and his re-election team. what really caught our eye here is about the gender cap. according to the poll, romney's wiped off the board any lead, brought it to a dead heat. do you think this is real? and i have to talk about my deceased irish catholic grandmother, because she used to say about pollsters, if they have the nerve to ask, you have the nerve to lie. but could they really have wiped away the gap that they had? >> you know, unclear. i mean, here's the thing. i've always contended that for romney, it wasn't just about having one good debate performance. he's got to show some consistency. he's had a few good days. i think the jobs numbers and the big bird gaffe, if you will, have given team obama a bit of an opportunity to, you know, to rebound and push back, but we'll see. i mean, these polls are a snapshot in time. they certainly suggest that romney, as we all said, had a great debate performance. people took a second look and said, all right, let me pay
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attention, let me see what i think about this guy. the question is, now that they're taking that second look, when they go to his website and say, wait a second, what he said on the stage about people with pre-existing conditions isn't true based on what it says on his campaign website, what are they going to really think and believe and what will the next debate performance bring? >> all right, that's for people who are really going to investigate and do the time and research that you suggest, which a lot of people may not do. but john, you heard chuck todd saying this bounce is real, but what matters when we look at this truly is the battleground states. the same pew poll shows a dramatic midwest shift coupled with a michigan poll that shows the president's lead shrinking from ten to three points. and we look at this, a new pennsylvania poll from siena showing the president's lead thinking from 14 to 3 points. if this is happening in those states, john, what does that mean for ohio, for florida, for virginia? >> well, those certainly are the three big states, and i think you'll see the same type of numbers follow there. i said before the debate that i thought that that was the real
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start of the presidential campaign because a lot of people really didn't know what to believe about mitt romney. so, i'm not surprised at all about these numbers. what i think is real interesting is how many of these numbers the president is only at 45%. you know, his problem is, incumbents rarely get undecideds to turn their way towards the end, so i think these numbers are startling, important and certainly problematic for the president. >> jonathan, frank newport was on "jansing & co." in the last hour, and he says that the numbers that he's seeing overnight show that president obama is picking back up. now, their new tracking is going to come out at 1:00 p.m. eastern time, but with these troubling battleground numbers, the obama campaign is still harping on "sesame street" and big bird, and we showed it, that new campaign ad. >> uh huh. >> here's more of the president, though. take a look at this, more of the president hitting romney last night. >> oscar's hiding out in his trash can. we're cracking down on him. governor romney's plan is to let wall street run wild again, but
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he's going to bring the hammer down on "sesame street." >> republicans already hitting back on this as we saw with john mccain. so, this detour through sesame street, is that really a wise way to try to put some upheaval in romney's trajectory toward pennsylvania avenue? i mean, this strategy, talking about big bird. >> yeah, well, look at it this way, the debate was so dispiriting for the president's base that, you know, this is the one thing when you played the clip of the president making the big bird joke, what happened? tons of laughter. this is something that i'm sure the campaign realizes the base likes it, it gets them re-energized and refocused, and keep in mind -- >> doesn't it remind them, though, of what a stinky debate it was for president obama? i mean, doesn't it take you back to all of this, that this was a lackluster performance for a man who wants to keep his job? >> right, yes, so it was a lack buster performance and there's no getting around it. you can't pretend that that debate didn't happen, but you've got to do something to remind,
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to sort of get the voter, to get your base wound up again. because remember, this is a base election. whichever person, whichever candidate can get his base out to the polls, that's going to be the margin of victory. and with regard to the swing state polls, let's keep something in mind, before that debate last wednesday, the swing state polls were already shrinking. so, i mean, this isn't big news that ohio and michigan and florida and these other states are beginning to shrink. this election has always been a close election. >> all right, so one thing -- >> john? >> real quick because i want to get you on this, karen, because the big event we're watching is coming up on thursday, the debate between biden versus ryan. if you're advising the vice president, because he's got a lot of ground work to make up for it here out of that first debate for their ticket, what do you tell him? >> i'd say to joe biden, be yourself, because biden has a unique way of bringing reality into these very substantive
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conversations. and i'll use big bird as an example, and we're sort of making a joke, and yes, it gives people laughter, but there's something very serious about this issue. i mean, the "sesame street" programming, pbs programming has been in -- i worked in education for a number of years -- the gold standard, not just here in the united states, around the world, recognized as a gold standard in children's education. at a time when kids in our country, not enough of them can actually read proficiently, what sense does it make to cut? i mean, we're not going to balance that $5 trillion hole by getting rid of big bird. that's what i think part of reminding people about big bird does, how ridiculous the rhetoric from the romney/ryan campaign is, but also the idea that, so, you're going to cut something that we know is effective and works and helps our kids prepare for the future, but you're going to continue to give subsidies to big oil? that doesn't make sense. so, i do think that there is a seriousness to this conversation and i think biden is the kind of guy who can bring that right balance to the debate. >> all right, so, one thing in an interview, congressman ryan did talk about his nerves playing into effect for
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thursday. take a look. >> joe biden's one of the best debaters we've seen in modern politics. he's been doing this for 40 years. he ran for president twice, he's the sitting vice president. it's my first time on the national stage like this, so i'm playing -- >> nervous? >> sure, of course i'm a little nervous. everybody's nervous about something like this. i bet joe biden's a little nervous. >> joe, i want to ask you about this. he will be a formidable opponent as far as knowing the inside baseball policies of what's been happening on the hill. paul ryan has basically grown up inside the capitol. >> well, i think there are real advantages for ryan, too. he comes across as sincere and likable like the guy who lives next door to you and i think that's a huge advantage to do that. second of all, the vice president is going to have defend everything about their administration -- the mediocrity of the economy, the failure in foreign policy and so forth. and let's face it, joe biden has
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had his share of being the punch line on the talk shows and the comedy shows quite a bit, and there's always that opportunity with joe biden we're going to see some major gaffe again. >> all right, so, let's see if the kids in college for thursday night start a drinking game for how many times they hear big bird mentioned between the vice president ticket-holders. jonathan capehart, karen finney and john brebender, thank you for joining me. joining me in studio, ohio state senator nina turner. great to have you here. i know you've been listening to the conversation about ohio, so let's dig in. their voter registration deadline is today. both candidates are in ohio today, really trying to blanket that state and get their message heard. so, we have both men lasering in on ohio. the president's going to be in columbus. romney and surrogate chris christie are going to be in cuyahoga falls. we saw the polls, romney closing in states like michigan and wisconsin. do you think he could take ohio?
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>> ohioans will have a flashback or a total recall, if you will, when they think about what the president has done, from rescuing the auto industry to standing up for women. they know, in fact, who to vote for. you know, the president won in 2008 ohio by 51%, and i believe that ohioans are going to recall who was actually in their corner for the last 3 1/2 years, and that is president obama. once they get over, thomas, the dazzle of the debate. we need to put that behind us and we're going to move forward. it is the president that is pushing policies that will allow the middle class and poor folks to thrive, to get over. >> romney has reinvested in the state of ohio with ads specifically targeted to ohioans. take a look at this. >> the question ohio families are asking is who can bring back the jobs? under president obama, we've lost over 500,000 manufacturing jobs. >> so, "the new york times" reporting today, senator, that the romney camp going after ohio with this new intensity, this new investment that they feel
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that they can get those people to come over to their team, especially after that solid performance at the debate. do you think, though, that mitt romney can make inroads talking about manufacturing with the unemployment rate now nationally below 7.8% and the fact that president obama was able to save the car manufacturing industry? >> i don't think so. if you talk to people in warren and youngstown, they know. one of every eight jobs are linked to the auto industry, of which the governor said let detroit go bankrupt. so, no one is going to fall for the trips and the traps of what the republicans are talking about. you know, this is the same man who said that he didn't care about the 47%, but now all of a sudden, he cares about the 47% because he is trying to get elected. so again, i believe that ohioans are going to stay strong. this is not the president's first trip to the rodeo when it comes to ohio. he's been paying attention to ohio for the past 3 1/2 years and that will not change when he is re-elected. >> one thing i want to talk to you about because we have you
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here is late last week this court victory in ohio, where an appeals court judge saying that your state can't single out the military for special treatment in terms of early voting the weekend before the election itself. so, it goes for that sunday souls to the polls. >> yes. >> here's the interesting thing, though. so, the courts say that this three-day weekend and this time period can't be closed. however, county by county, they can have the final say? >> well, thomas, the courts just reset the law. it went back to the original law in the state of ohio. so, all along it was up to the county boards of elections, but since the debacle of 2004, county boards have been allowing that last three days, especially in the urban counties. and let us not forget that the type of voting that the secretary of state has cut out has a disproportionate impact on african-american voters. there was just a study that came out that said that african-americans are 26 times more likely to vote early and in person than any other voter in the state of ohio. so, make no mistake about it,
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the republicans are doing everything they can, whether it's on the federal level or the state level, to try to target african-american voters and poor voters, but this is a victory for all voters in the state of ohio now that the last three days, the boards of elections have that discretion, but it is a victory. >> but if the secretary of state, as you say, has been trying to get this to be a tighter time period, what's to say that they can't do behind scenes, behind closed doors dealings about getting certain counties not to have souls to the polls? >> well, thomas, he could, but it is my hope that he will not make a mockery out of our drasion, that he will cease and disk. the fact that he's not ordered a directive thus far is disappointing given what the courts have said, but we are going to continue to push forward in the state of ohio. we have been down this road before, especially african-americans in terms of folks trying to suppress the vote. next thing they're going to do is bring out the water holes and send the barking dogs, but we will not relent.
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we believe in what congresswoman barbara jordan believed in, that what the people want is simple. they wanted america as good as its promise, and that is why we're going to continue to fight in the state for african-americans, for hispanic, for poor people, for working people and for women, and when you take all of those categories together, once folks really start to think about who's in their corner, who's been working. you know, thomas, people have a short memory. president bush had a surplus when he took office, thanks to president clinton. our president takes office, 800,000 jobs, we're losing them every single month. the president has been working hard and all he has to do is stand on his record, talk about his record and remind folks who is there to make an economy that is built to last, to build an economy from the middle out and not the top down. who doesn't have to pretend that he cares about the 47% and for women. look at the lilly ledbetter act, so the president needs to bring it to governor romney the next time they go face to face and remind the folks who has been standing in the ready position
quote
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for them. ohio will remember and we are going to vote for president barack obama. >> both candidates, though, in ohio today. ohio state senator nina turner, thank you for your time. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> absolutely. we're following breaking news out of bellefonte, pennsylvania, sentencing day for jerry sandusky. and as the judge put it he'll be spending the rest of his life behind bars. i'll talk with an attorney who represents certain victims. plus, vice president biden and debate prep against paul ryan. how they're prepping for the big face-off come thursday. and what is your advice for the vice president and congressman ryan ahead of the thursday debate? tweet me your comments or video pointers @thomasaroberts or on facebook. i know what you're thinking. it's a hot white number, but what a hassle to care for! all that pre-treating and chlorine bleach. and don't even think about working up a sweat in the club! ♪ i use tide vivid detergent and boost. they keep my whites looking like new, wash after wash.
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welcome back, everybody. breaking news out of bellefonte,
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pennsylvania. powerful, emotional reaction in court of the sentencing of convicted sex offender jerry sandusky handed down within the last hour. the disgraced former penn state football coach ordered to serve at least 30 years in prison on 45 different counts of child molestation. the lead prosecutor didn't hold back his thoughts on sandusky, especially his statement he released yesterday. >> a masterpiece that the now self-delusion, completely untethered from reality and without any acceptance of responsibility. it was entirely self-focused, as if he, again, were the victim. it was, in short, ridiculous. >> he's talking about the report that jerry sandusky released on the even of the sentencing. now his lawyers vow to appeal the penalty, saying they never got a chance to prove their case. >> would we have been able to prove it? we don't know. did we want the opportunity to prove it? yes. could it have been proven? very possibly, but we'll never know that. but the real question, folks, is
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why didn't we get the chance? >> nbc's national investigative correspondent michael isikoff joins us now from outside the courthouse. so, michael, explain how this all went down inside. >> reporter: well, as you mentioned, thomas, it was an emotional, at times gut-wrenching hearing. at least two of the victims who gave statements fought back tears as they talked about the damage sandusky had done to them, but probably the single most powerful moment was from victim number four, who did not break down, seemed almost angry and said "i can never forgive you" to sandusky, addressing him. and among the damage he had done, he cannot let his own child out of sight because of fear of what might happen to him. that's the lasting impact of what jerry sandusky had done to him. jerry sandusky himself gave a long, rambling statement all over the map, seemed to duplicate some of what you heard in that audio statement, and he himself broke down and fought back tears towards the end, but it was hard to see the point that he was going to make.
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it was very clear, by the way, that judge cleland was not happy about that audio broadcast and talked when he sentenced sandusky, saying that that statement with its conspiracy theories ranged to be unbelievable. he was not happy about the statement. >> nbc's michael isikoff reporting for us from bellefonte, pennsylvania. michael, thank you so much. as michael brings up about that recording, sandusky did speak before the court handed down its punishment, and the defendant's rambling remarks coming on the heels of that audio statement, that specific statement in which he talked about a conspiracy theory and denied all wrongdoing. >> they could make me out as a monster, they could treat me as a monster, but they can't take away my heart. in my heart, i know i did not do these alleged, disgusting acts." >> attorney jeffrey fritz represents several victims in this case, including victim number four, whose testimony kick-started the sandusky trial. jeff, what are your thoughts and your clients' reactions to the sentencing handed down today?
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>> well, obviously, today, victim four told the court, and specifically told jerry sandusky to his face about the anger and describing the horrors that were invited upon him. and he is happy to know that jerry sandusky will live the rest of his life in prison. >> i want to play for everybody a little more from that audio statement that jerry sandusky released last night. take a listen. >> evaluate the accusers and their families, realize they didn't come out of isolation. the accusers were products of many more people and experiences than me. look at their confidantes and their honesty. think about how easy it was for them to turn on me given the information, attention and potential perks. we must fight unfairness and consistency and dishonesty. people need to be portrayed for who they really are." >> as you mentioned, jeff, one of your clients is victim number four, who gave that victim impact statement today inside
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the courtroom, one of three victims of jerry sandusky to give remarks before the judge handed down his sentence. what was, i guess, your clients' reaction to hearing not only that tape from last night but 18 minutes of jerry sandusky in court today trying to explain away this behavior that he was convicted of? >> well, the general consensus, not only from victim four, but from everybody who was in this courtroom, that it was a rambling statement, it showed jerry sandusky's narcissism, and it didn't really have a point other than this is a guy that knows he's going to prison for the rest of his life and he's akthing like the animal that he is. >> these are boys that are interrupted in their youth through this predatory abuse that they suffered at the hands of jerry sandusky, again now convicted on those 45 counts. for your clients, what support systems do they have in place
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now to help them with this? because this is not -- just because they went through delivering a victim impact speech today doesn't provide closure. it's silly to think that it would. >> well, the victims have undergone and continue to undergo counseling. but what's important to note today is these are victims that transition into survivors, and they're no longer victims. they are doing what they can to move on with their life as best they can, despite the horror. >> you make a great point. so, we will say that you are the attorney for several of the survivors. jeffrey fritz. thank you, jeff. i appreciate you joining me this morning. >> thank you, thomas. coming up, we crunch the numbers once again. an inside look at a few of the biggest battleground states with our very own chuck todd. he's going to explain his new catch phrase, flohva. yeah, it's a good one. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare?
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welcome back, everybody. nbc has new technology that drills right down to the heart of the battle in key swing states. it's an even better way to show you the most critical battleground counties, and joining me now to show it off is chuck todd, nbc's chief political director and white house political correspondent as well as host of "the daily rundown" here on msnbc. and chuck, these are some of the most interesting counties, and i think that you've also come up with new names for all of them, correct? >> well, we have. first, yeah, a little bit of that. but look, every state, every swing state has that swing county, and we've identified the largest county in every state and we're going to give you a little taste of it in the mega state of flohva. that's what i've been referring to the big three of the battleground states, florida, ohio, virginia. i know, it sounds like a prescription drug ad you'll see that probably gets rid of aches and pains in your shoulder or maybe the aches and pains when it comes to how many tv ads you've seen. but here we are with florida. and let me show you, each state,
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the swing county that will tell us what moved. it's also a new way of showing our new technology where we have a lot more stuff from '04 to '08. the big one here in florida is hillsborou hillsborough, it's the tampa area. there's the blue square that represents what president obama did. he carried it in 2008. it's a county that he actually flipped. and when you see, you see not much moved from blue to red when he flipped in '04. bush carried that by kerry and obama won it. it's one of the counties that you wonder, okay, where's it going? it will tell you where florida went. in ohio, the biggest swing county is in another major city, if you will. it happens to be cincinnati. and of course, ohio is where both the president and mitt romney are. and on one hand, the president's going to hang out in columbus because he's trying to one up the score. that's a good democratic county. but cincinnati, it's a swing county, right down here. it's one that president bush carried by 23,000 votes. the president carried it by
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21,000 votes. it's going to tell you a lot about what's happening in ohio by where that goes. and then moving on into virginia, it won't come as a surprise to folks that the big swing county is in the northern virginia area, since that's where all the growth has been. and i'm sure folks are wondering, is it -- well, let me move here. technology stalls a little bit. is it a loudon, a fairfax, a prince william? well, according to our numbers, it's prince william, and the county seat of prince william, that's manassas. the joke about virginia is when you drive on i-66 in virginia, the welcome center when you've entered the state of virginia, you have to drive 30 miles to prince william county in manassas, and that's when you get the "welcome to virginia." but actually, manassas and prince william county went obama in 2008. it is a county that romney has to get that bush carried in 2004. bush only won it by 8,500. obama won it by 26,000 votes. and one of the other things
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about that county, thomas, it's what i call a dual threat county. it's a county that's growing in population, becoming more democratic, and it's a margin county now at this point when it comes to president obama. >> we love when you get specific and rename all these different states with the counties. >> flohva, baby. flohva, flohva, flohva. >> flohva, flohva, okay. nbc's political director chuck todd. chuck, thank you so much. you can always watch chuck right here on "the daily rundown," 9:00 a.m. eastern weekdays on msnbc. some breaking news to talk about out of ohio right now. campus police at ohio state university at newark is closed due to a bomb threat. now, not much is known right now about the specifics, but police are expected to speak coming up this afternoon. that investigation is ongoing. we're going to keep an eye on that, bring you more details right here.
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so, this election's first and only vice presidential debate is just two days away, and the stakes couldn't be higher. both congressman ryan and vice president biden are off the
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trail prepping for the clash in kentucky at center college. our chuck todd pointing out that the elder statesman generally wins the vp debates, even noting that biden won many of the '08 primary debates. >> rudy giuliani, there's only three things he mentioned in the sentence, a noun, a verb and 9/11. here's a man who brags about how he made the city safe. it was the biden crime bill that became the clinton crime bill that allowed him to do that. >> we are following both campaigns and begin with vice president biden and nbc inbedded reporter kerry dan. bring us up to speed because both campaigns are really playing the expectations game here and lowering the bar, but we do know that the vice president is a good debater. he does good and shows up well with prep work. >> that's right. he's spending six days off the campaign trail in wilmington leading up to the debate, doing debate prep, mock sort of simulations of what kentucky's going to look like. his debate partner is chris van hollen, a democrat who worked on the house budget committee and
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is very familiar with paul ryan's policies and also sort of the delivery of those policies. another thing that biden is doing, and this is something that he talks about a lot on the campaign trail, he talks about the book "young guns," which is the one that ryan authored with two of his house colleagues, about their vision for the budget looking forward. and what biden really wants to do is make this debate as much as he can sort of a referendum on those policies and what impact those may have on americans. so, you're definitely going to see a lot of references to that book and to that budget going forward. >> nbc news campaign embed carrie dann, thank you, appreciate it. and in florida, bracing to come face to face with the vice president with a vengeance. well, we were going to have that sound bite from him, but we'll bring in nbc's ron mott, who's traveling with the congressman,
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who can explain it for us better. ron, stand by, because we have that bite. let's play it. >> i really think that because they had such a bad debate that joe is just going to come flying at us. it seems clear that their new strategy is basically just call us liars. >> that's what he is putting out there now, saying biden will come in, just basically calling the ticket liars. we know that ryan campaigned last night, but ron, what do we know about how the debate preps are going and how much time he's putting into this? >> reporter: well, hey there, thomas. well, he's come down to florida. he's got no public events scheduled this hour in florida, so we assume he's come down here to stay relaxed. i think the campaign wants to make sure he goes into the biggest debate of his political career relaxed and confident. as i mentioned, he has no public schedule, but he is doing some mock debates today. take a look at what we know about some of these debate preps going on. doing mock debates with lawyer ted olson, a former u.s. solicitor general under president george w. bush. a very skilled courtroom litigator, argued a lot of cases
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in front of the u.s. supreme court, so a good partner for paul ryan, being able to think on his feet in a moment's notice to challenge the responses. he's also reviewing joe biden's previous debates and speeches. joe biden's been an elected official for 40 years, so he has a lot of experience under his belt and he's memorized some stats and phrases that paul ryan might be able to use. obviously, in a debate like that, 90 minutes long, you want to give as much information in the shortest amount of time as possible and that's what paul ryan is doing. he has a beautiful day to prepare, but we believe he's in the hotel preparing for this debate in 48 hours, thomas. >> we'll be watching. ron mott traveling with congressman ryan. thank you so much, appreciate it. so, what will it take to win the vp debate and the presidential debate one week from now? joining me is political science professor samuel popkin, author of "the candidate: what it takes to win and hold the white house." he's been a democratic presidential campaign adviser since 1972, working with george mcgovern, jimmy carter, bill
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clinton and al gore. professor, great to have you hire. let's start with thursday's vice presidential debate. what does joe biden and paul ryan have to do to outdo each other, to win? >> well, the job is not to be gladiators, because it doesn't matter which of them is better in a cage fight. the question is what can they do to strengthen the way people approach the presidential debate. biden has to find a way to put romney on the spot, not ryan on the spot. >> andrew sullivan has a new article on the daily beast website called "did president obama just throw the entire election away?" and he writes in part, "i've never seen a candidate self-destruct for no external reason this late in the campaign before. i'm trying to see a silver lining, but when a president self-imlates on live tv and his opponent shines with lies and smiles and a record number of people watch, it's hard to see how a president and his party recover." professor, forget the debates,
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how does president obama and the campaign move on to win from here? because we're seeing such a tightening of the polling across the country, certainly in battleground states as well. >> well, the easy job for any incumbent is to say look at the good things i've done and look at the bad things you've promised, but they also have to explain why they haven't done more good things, why the glass is only half full. and obama has a case, if he wants to make it, which is that slowly but surely, step by step, brick by brick, we're rebuilding the economy and we're doing it without cutting medicare, we're doing it without cutting contraception, we're doing it without taking away student loans. so, i can give you gain without pain, and he wants you to have pain today for someone else's tax gains. it's a hard case to make now. >> all right, so your book, though, examines the winners, the losers of the last 60 years of presidential campaigns. at this point in time, what are
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your predictions for what we see coming up next month? >> well, i see now -- romney did more than i thought he could in the first debate. his big job was to get people to say maybe there's more to him than i thought, and he immediately brought back the uncomfortable republicans, but he also opened everybody else's eyes. and it wasn't just the untruths he may have told. he also said some truths that are very powerful, and one of them was i can work with democrats and i've proved that in massachusetts and you can't work with republicans. now, there's a reason, there's a difference between flexible democrats and rigid republicans, but he has to find a way to make the case that he can keep and get more done than mitt romney, and that mitt romney is really the original release or release two, not the new mitt romney who's rewritten his past. >> uc san diego political science professor samuel popkin. sir, thanks for coming on.
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i appreciate your time. >> my pleasure. >> all right, so, our question, do you have any advice for the vice president or congressman ryan ahead of thursday's debate? you can always reach us. tweet me @thomasaroberts or comment on facebook, thomasarobertsmsnbc, and your videos on this are welcome, too. coming up next, standing up to bullying. it is a crisis across our country. how tyler clementi's family is working to put an end to it two years after the tragic loss of tyler. i have a cold, and i took nyquil, but i'm still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose. thanks. that's the cold truth!
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get two miracles in one product. tone rehab 2-in-1 foundation. covers spots, lines, and wrinkles. and helps improve skin tone over time. tone rehab from easy, breezy, beautiful, covergirl! covergirl! welcome back, everybody. october is national antibullying month, and sadly, that month-long awareness is the result of so many tragic stories we've covered on this program. one of the first to elevate the national conversation is that of tyler clementi and his loss. he was a college teen studying at rutgers university, and tyler killed himself on september 22nd, 2010, three days after his roommate secretly videotaped him kissing another man. now, that incident sparked a criminal trial as well as a guilty verdict for his roommate. it also inspired tyler's family to take action on their own. joining me in studio now are tyler's mom and dad, jane and
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joe clementi. it's great to have you both here to talk about what you are doing now as a family. jane, i want to start with you. did you think at this point -- and it's hard to believe that two years has already gone by -- but that you would be here at this point with a new mission to keep tyler's memory and legacy alive in a positive direction? >> hi. thank you, thomas. no, i did not ever think that this would be where my life would have taken me, but we do need to keep -- i do see that there's a conversation that has been started. and as i'm waking up from my grief and all my sadness, i feel that it's imperative to keep that conversation going and to make it a safe place for our youth, all youth, but especially the lgbt community. >> joe, certainly your family is inspirational, one that has been empowered by what so many families would beheartbreaking and trangic loss that many might not recover from. i know that the foundation has become certainly a personal and passionate mission for all of
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your family members, and today we all wear the foundation bracelets, if you can see them right here. >> thank you. >> explain how well it's going for you, because this is a big undertaking for your family. >> it's a big undertaking. we started the foundation so that young adults and parents wouldn't have to experience the same kind of tragedy that happened to our family. we work on turning bystanders into upstanders. as a matter of fact, on national coming out day on thursday, people can visit our website and take the pledge. and i'd invite you, thomas, to take the pledge to turn bystanders into upstanders. >> i will be there to sign it. and one thing i wanted to point out on that website, the roman handshake. that was something you were very involved in, that visual image of showing tolerance of mankind and that simple gesture to one another. >> the handshake in general has been that way i think throughout history with the roman handshake in particular, to be a little bit different, and it also is,
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if you look at it, it's the way that you would help somebody up when you grab them. so, it's that mutual trust that we'd have for one another and express it that way. >> jane, for this undertaking, as joe just said, this is a major undertaking, the family has to be very committed to doing this, moving forward. and i know right now that with rutgers university, there's still some unfinished business there, but the foundation itself, what is your main goal? what is your hope, say five, ten years down the line? >> well, our goal is to create safe spaces, and we hope to get the message out that our youth are not broken, people are not broken based on their sexual orientation and that we need to be accepting and embracing our children, you know? i want to get the message out to other parents to be embracing, not just accepting, but embracing. >> one thing, and i know that this was a struggle for you, was
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church teachings. how have your philosophies as a family and your thoughts about church teachings changed after what you've gone through? >> that's a great question. and certainly, our church family has been very supportive of us and loving of us and has seen us through our darkest moments of grief and sadness. but unfortunately, with much time and consideration and prayer, i found that i was being a bystander by staying at the church home that i was at, and i needed to be an upstander and i needed to make it known that church teachings are not acceptable. we need to move forward. people are not broken because of their sexual orientation. they come and they need to be not only welcomed but also accepted and allowed to bring their gifts within the church family. >> well, your family is certainly an inspiration to so many across this country and around the globe, and we wish you the very best with the work
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that you're doing for the tyler clementi foundation. and i know we have the website up on the screen so you can check it out for yourselves. people can go on thursday to take the pledge, correct, joe? >> yes. >> please, do. >> tylerclementi.org. >> in the right-hand corner there. >> jane and hi to your other s us. we're going to be right back after this. it's time for swanson flavor boost. concentrated broth in easy to use packets. mix it into skillet dishes, for an instant dose of... hell-o! [ female announcer ] get recipes at flavorboost.com. hell-o! chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. geico, see how much you could save.
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welcome back. we asked you what kind of debate advice you would give to vice president joe biden or congressman paul ryan. michael said his advice no drama, stick to the issues and facts on how you will help the country. we get this from becky, to biden make him defend the ryan budget. those are his ideas. to ryan, keep doing what you're doing. always find me on twitter send your thoughts to thomasaroberts. a shot of the markets, red arrows across the board. sandra fluke said it's a president of choice. time for the poly side bar. the law student and women's rights advocate is defending
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actress stacy dash after the "clueless" star was bashed for her support of mitt romney. she endorsed romney on twitter and became a target of on-line attacks. fluke came to her defense saying so disappointed to see people attacking @real stacy dash. disagree politically but racist attacks are unacceptable. kid rock introducing paul ryan in his home state of michigan yesterday and joked about the presidential debate. >> i enjoyed it so much, i think i might throw a keg party for the ryan/biden debate. >> michigan's tv affiliates interview with ryan ended abruptly after the reporter asked a question about intercity gun violence. take a look. >> those are your words, not mine. >> thank you very much, sir. >> yeah. >> that was kind of strange. stuff words in people's mouths. >> a spokesman for ryan issued a
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statement saying in part -- >> jimmy fallon pans the president and his debate performance itself. check this one out. >> apparently after last week's debate, polls show obama trailing mitt romney by one point. yeah. one point or as is also known the thing that obama failed to make during last week's debate. >> a lot of people are saying the government is cook the books. >> look i got to say if you're cooking the books 7.8% unemployment is a [ bleep ] recipe. like the radish stew of jobless numbers. >> that was jon stewart in comedy central taking on those who questioned last week's drop in unemployment. the narrative of cooking the books. we heard it over and over. well that's going to wrap things up for me. thanks for your time. see you back here tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern. joining me sean spicer, ron
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fournier, the journal editor in teach and jimmy williams and hogan gibbly. "now" with alex wagner is coming your way next. hi, alex. >> hey, thomas. radish stew. i'm kidding. something more than radish stew with 28 days to go team romney is etch a sketching the etch a sketch as the romney fortifies the wall of obfuscation. we will examine his latest recalibration. the obama camp gives it the bird. will the big bird strategy ruffle feathers in romney land. and degrade debate. who has the upper hand? ryan or sfwhooin this week's main event when "now" starts in a mere 180 seconds. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about low-cost investing. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're committed to offering you tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 low-cost investment options-- tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like our exchange traded funds, or etfs tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 which now have the lowest tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 operating expenses tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 in their respective tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lipper categories. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lower than spdr tdd#: 1-800-345-2550
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meltdown. resurgence, inflection point or not much of anything at all. it's tuesday, october 9th and this is "now."